In a tough market, start-up specialty insurer Valiant Insurance Group gained broad name recognition and brand awareness through the consistent use of a "tried and true" method: press announcements.

Going against industry trends, Valiant hired in a soft market and bad economy. Press releases on each new high-level hire were sent out, averaging one per month over a period of about 18 months. The press releases focused on what the new executives brought to Valiant and emphasized what this experience would mean to Valiant's customers. In particular, each release talked about the vast knowledge of the new hires, demonstrating Valiant's branding message - "Experience Matters".

The results were phenomenal. As time went by, each press release was picked up by nearly all of the insurance trades, print and online, netting a minimum of 5 to 8 mentions monthly. More importantly, the new Valiant executives said that within minutes of a press release hitting an online news source, they got emails and phone calls. One publication did a close-up feature on the new CFO. The company itself was profiled in two publications, generating an incredible amount of positive name recognition and making the process of building a book of profitable business more effective.